


Just Like All the Others

by Gabriel_the_Trickster



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin) Swears, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-26
Updated: 2014-01-26
Packaged: 2018-01-10 03:50:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1154515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gabriel_the_Trickster/pseuds/Gabriel_the_Trickster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's leaving for college, but really, she's just leaving him. Just like all the others. Well, that's how he sees it anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Like All the Others

**Author's Note:**

> Another anonymous tumblr writing prompt. A little more angst than fluff and there is some swearing, but I actually enjoyed writing this one.

Silence was never good.

People came to expect it from Levi because they just assumed he liked keeping to himself; they saw him as a person who would rather listen to the conversation than partake in it. And in a way he was like that.

But she knew there was so much more to it. To him.

And she knew that the painful silence that was threatening to suffocate her now was not a good thing.

He was doing it again.

Deciding to add life back into the depressing room, she spoke. “I know we always talked about building a life here, but I-”

He held up a hand and she shut up immediately. She waited for him to say something, but he just dropped his hand and continued staring out the window of the small diner they were sitting in. Outside it was cold and grey and the aura emanating from him was just as bleak. He was doing it again, bottling up his emotions.

And pushing her away.

She couldn’t stand it anymore. “Please say something, Levi.”

Silence.

“I want to talk about it, to explain it all to you.”

Silence.

She started to get frustrated. For all that she loved him, her little patience started to wear out.

“Look, I don’t expect you to understand, but-”

He swiveled his head back to stare directly at her, his blue eyes intense yet somehow emotionless. “See, that’s where you’re wrong, I do understand. I’m not an idiot, Mikasa, I know how the world works and I knew our plan was a long shot anyway.”

She knew he was just lashing out because he was hurt, but that didn’t take the sting out of his words.

“It’s only for a few years, and I won’t be far. We can still see each other on weekends and holidays,” she muttered, staring down at her mug of coffee which all the sugar in the world couldn’t sweeten.

_SLAM!_

Mikasa jumped as his hand came in contact with the table, the crack resonating within the restaurant and causing several people to turn their heads. Some of her coffee spilled.

“That’s not good enough.” His voice was oddly calm, yet anger started making an appearance in his eyes, accompanied by some other emotion she wasn’t yet quite sure of. “It’s not-it’s not good enough for me. I won’t know if you’re okay and I won’t be able to be there for you if you need me. And there’s nothing for me in this shitty town without you.”

“Then come with me. It’s not too late to apply, and your grades are good enough to get it. Let’s go to college together and then make a real plan for the rest of our lives.”

He scoffed and turned his head back to the window, not really looking at the other side so much as staring at the glass itself, musing over the fact that something as fragile as glass could be used to protect them from the elements outside.

He was sure there was a metaphor hidden in there somewhere.

_Betrayal._

It was betrayal that she saw in his eyes, just before he turned away. She finally understood why he was shutting her out, closing himself up again. She had betrayed him. He had trusted her enough to give her his trust, and here she was, just another person he loved leaving him. She had promised him that she wasn’t going to be like any of those other people, the ones that came, used, and left him. She had promised him a life, one where they were together. Not one where they were perfectly happy because neither of them was naive enough to believe in “happily ever afters”, but they were supposed to be together.

And here she was, being selfish. But she was being selfish for the right reasons, wasn’t she? College was important to her; her parents had always wanted her to go. Two years ago when she met Levi, college just seemed to slip back into the recesses of her mind, but now that ideal was haunting her. She knew Levi was going to be upset, but she had figured if she couldn’t get him to enroll then she could at least play the long-distance relationship idea.

Neither prospect was turning out so well.

“I know your parents always dreamed of you going to college, and I wouldn’t want to make you choose between me and your parents, so I think it’s best if I just take myself out of the equation,” he finally said.

Her nose started to sting, a sign that she was about to start crying. But she didn’t want to cry.

“Levi, I-”

“I don’t want to go to college, the idea never appealed to me and it’s going to take a lot more than just some girl to change that.”

_Don’t cry,_ she told herself, _he’s just hurt and saying things he doesn’t mean to push you away. He doesn’t mean it._

“And furthermore, I’m not some dog that you can just leave whenever you feel like it and just assume I’m going to remain loyal and faithful because you own me.”

_He doesn’t mean it. He doesn’t mean it._

“So you know what? Fuck you, Mikasa Ackerman! I hope you have a great time in college and meet some great college guy and be happy. I won’t even wish ill on you because you aren’t worth my thoughts anymore.”

_He doesn't mean it. He doesn't mean it. He doesn't mean it. He doesn't mean it._

“I’m leaving. I don’t have time for liars like you. Have a nice life, bitch.”

With that, he stood and reached into his pocket to grab his wallet and pulled out a ten dollar bill which he unceremoniously threw onto the table. “To pay for the shitty coffee and the shitty waitress.” He then grabbed a napkin from the container on the table and shoved it in her hand. “For your damn tears.”

And then he was gone.

-

She got out of her car, threw her purse over her shoulder, and took the map of the campus out of her pocket. She found her dormitory and started walking the direction, ignoring the busy campus life. Freshmen were easy to spot; all of them had their noses in maps.

As she was passing one of the main buildings with a huge fountain in front of it, she felt her phone vibrating and she grabbed it out of her purse not bothering to look at the caller I.D.

“Hello?” she asked as she tried to find her place on the map again.

“Mikasa, it’s been a while.”

She almost dropped the map.

After a moment of reminding herself to breathe, she said, “It’s been three damn months.”

“Actually, it’s only been eighty-three days, not exactly three months.”

“Does it matter? You haven’t spoken to me since that day at the diner. I called you and texted you and drove to your house but you never answered.”

“You’re right.”

“Yeah, I know I am. So why are you calling me now?”

“Partly because I wanted to apologize for everything I said and did. I’m not going to lie, when you told me you were going away to college, it felt like everything you’d ever told me about wanting to start a new life with me was a lie.”

She sighed, exasperated. “It wasn't-”

“Just let me finish. I know it wasn't now, but I didn't at the time. Back then, all I could picture was you going off to do something amazing and leaving me behind just like everyone else I cared about. And I knew that if you were so far away from me I wouldn't be able to protect you. I felt useless and sad and I am more sorry than you’ll ever know.”

It was easy to forgive him because she still loved him, but that didn't change anything. He was still back in their old town and she was at college.

“And partly because I wanted to talk to you on the phone before walking up to you so you’d have time to adjust and not punch me on sight.”

She jumped, startled because the voice came from her phone and from right behind her. She turned around and saw him standing three yards away, still talking into the phone.

“Do you forgive me?”

She was speechless. “Why are you-”

“Do you forgive me,” he insisted, taking a step towards her.

She moved almost subconsciously, walking towards him and answering into the phone: “yes”.

And then they were standing in front of each other, their faces mere inches apart. And then she reached out and hugged him, burying her face in his neck and holding him close, inhaling his scent as his arms wrapped around her and held her tight.

“I missed you so much,” she whimpered, tears starting to spill from her eyes.

“Me too,” he whispered into her hair.

After a few minutes they pulled apart and Mikasa started wiping her eyes.

“What are you doing here?”

He flashed a rare smile. “I’m a student here.”

“Why?”

He shrugged. “I told you, there’s nothing for me in that shitty town without you in it. Hell, there’s nothing for me in life without you in it, Mikasa Ackerman. So I figured you were more important to me than upholding my belief that college is bullshit.”

She laughed, loving the way he was smiling. It truly was a rare, beautiful thing. It relaxed the tight muscles in his face and gave him more of a boyish charm that she found very cute.

“So what are you majoring in?”

“Philosophy.”

“What?! Why?”

“Because,” he answered, completely deadpan, “it’s the most bullshit major I've ever heard of. It seemed to fit.”

She laughed again and grabbed his hand, pulling him towards her new dormitory and their new life.


End file.
